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Joseph Sarnelli assaulted
Attacks by groups were the most common form of assault on whites during the disorder, but the only other instance instance that also involved an attempted robbery was the assault on Max Newman in his grocery store (there is also one robbery, which involved threats by men armed with knives but no assault). The presence of a police officer able to come to Sarnelli’s assistance was not surprising given that the intersection of 125th Street and 7th Avenue was part of the police perimeter around Kress' store. Nonetheless, multiple assaults took place there during the disorder. Just when this assault occurred was not clear. Harlem’s businesses could remain open until 9:00 PM, 11:00 PM, or even midnight, and this area was a site of disorder throughout that period. One possible time was around 10:00 PM, when Patrolman Charles Robbins was hit over the head with an iron bar by someone police did not apprehend, the first reported violence south of 125th Street. The circumstances of that attack indicated that police were at best struggling to control the area at that time, perhaps creating the opportunity for some of those on the street to attempt a robbery. The shop’s location might have made it a particular target; the Hotel Theresa did not accept Black guests, a situation that would not change until 1940. Sarnelli was unlikely to have kept his business open until the time of other attacks in the area given the increasing disorder.
This assault was mentioned only in the New York Post and Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The Brooklyn newspaper included the case as one of ten brief "Highlights on the Harlem Front" and identified Sarnelli as white and as being attacked by three Black men. No one was arrested for the assault, and Sarnelli did not appear in any of the lists of those injured despite the claim in the New York Post story that he was “badly pummeled.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle described Sarnelli only as struggling with the men. Brief accounts of assaults on whites such as this were a feature of the reporting of the New York Post and the New York Evening Journal, which emphasized racial violence. The Black men's alleged desire to obtain razors conformed to racist stereotypes that featured in those newspapers, which held the razor was the preferred weapon of Black men. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle presented the assault in those terms: "One policeman probably can be credited with saving considerable bloodshed."